Saturday, February 14, 2009

Some Seriously Good Eating

Wow- folks.. have we been eating well on the Peterson Front. Those of you on a diet maybe should just keep on blog hopping. (Oh yeah- I'm on a diet. Well, it's on hold, I guess!)

Yesterday was Eric's birthday. He loves cheesecake, so I purposed to make him a cheesecake from scratch. It was delicious! Here is a picture of the pie...


And here is what it looked like on our plates, after adding some home made blueberry jam on the top...


Phew was it incredible. Here's the recipe:

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Owen's Cheesecake

4 egg whites - whipped
1 c. sugar, added slowly.

Whip these two into a merangue.

Soften 24 oz. cream cheese to room temperature.
1t. vanilla

While wearing a rubber glove (Owen is a graduate of the New York Culinary Institute... he does things like this), mash with hands. Or use a mixer. (I used the mixer.)

Add to the merangue and mix for 30 seconds.

Bake in 300* oven for at least 30 minutes. Make sure the middle doesn't jiggle. If the middle cracks, it's done.

Top with:
1 lb. sour cream
1/4 c. sugar

Mix these and spread on top of the cheesecake. Put back in oven for 5 minutes to melt the topping.

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I also have been reading a lot about a new book out called "Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day". It seemed interesting, and I just love good fancy bread, if I don't have to take too much time to do it. This was so easy, and received rave reviews, so I just had to post about it.

In a mixer put:

6 c. warm water (Hint: make the water just warmer than you would have a baby's bath...)
3 T. Yeast
3 T. Salt
13 c. flour. (I used white flour this time, although I will try it with my fresh ground wheat next.)

Mix this just until wet.
Divide into several containers... I used three ice cream containers... you can figure out what you need.

Let rise for 2 hours.

Put in fridge until you want to use it. Best if overnight or so. The dough is easier to work with when it is cold. You can use it any time within 2 weeks.

When you want to make the bread, put cornmeal on a pizza peel. Pull off about a pound (cantaloupe size) ball of dough. Roll the edges under, and sprinkle with flour. Let sit for 40 minutes.

20 minutes into the sitting period, put a baking sheet (I use a stone) in the oven, and an empty broiler pan. Turn oven on to 450*.

After it is hot, cut slices on the top of the bread (it won't have risen... that's OK). Slide onto hot pan in oven, and add a couple cups of water to the boiler pan.

Bake for 30 minutes.


It is wonderful. This would make great rolls too. Try it! It's easy!

If you don't have an industrial size mixer, you can half all the ingredients and make a smaller batch. My big batch made 7 loaves. Oh it's so yummy. Try it!

8 comments:

  1. Carri,
    The cheesecake looks great, I'm gonna haveto try it, and bread...well let's just say it is my weakness and that is a must try too!!

    Maria

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  2. Yum! I am definitely going to try making that bread! Lisa~

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  3. I am definitely making that bread tomorrow! It looks SO delicious. Thanks!!

    ~Kate

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  4. I don't have a broiler pan. Could I put a 8 inch pan in there with some water? I want to make this tomorrow. It looks great!

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  5. This recipe DOES NOT work with all whole wheat. I ground it last night and tried it today. It cooked for over an hour and still wasn't done. The crust was not crunchy either. I went to their site and it says whole wheat cannot make a crunchy crust, that you have to have mostly white flour to get this.

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  6. I altered this recipe just slightly and posted part one of the process today. I really like the results!

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  7. Oh wow! MUST try this one. Thank you to Sandra for saying it doesn't work with whole wheat as that is what I was going to use - guess not! I'll try it with white. =)

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